Editorial update: · Richter Immobilien-Transaktionen
A company can be a suitable tenant when its plans match your apartment and your expectations. Before agreeing a rent, establish who signs, who lives there and what happens when employees change or the company lease ends.
Planning to let a property in Düsseldorf or NRW? Discuss your letting
Start with the person or company that will owe you rent
An employer asks to rent your Düsseldorf apartment for two members of staff on a nine-month assignment. One central contact and a company paying the bills may sound convenient. Before discussing the price, identify the proposed legal arrangement. The business might rent in its own name, help an employee take a personal tenancy, or instruct an accommodation agency that only introduces the parties. Those arrangements create different obligations.
Where you sign directly with the employee, that individual is your tenant. The employer may reimburse their accommodation costs or transfer the rent to you. Payment alone does not make the employer an additional tenant or guarantor. Likewise, the employee leaving their job does not, by itself, answer whether their tenancy ends. The employment arrangement and the tenancy must be considered separately.
If a GmbH, a German limited liability company, signs as tenant, your principal contract is with that legal entity. The people living in the apartment need their own legal basis for occupation through the company. This might be a subtenancy or another arrangement linked to employment. Ask what the company actually intends; “staff accommodation” is an operational description rather than a complete explanation of the contracts.
“Business tenant” is also too broad a category. A sole trader is an individual and may rent an apartment for their own home. That situation differs from a GmbH accommodating employees. Write down four roles for each enquiry: owner, contracting tenant, occupants and payer. Keeping those roles visible makes it easier to identify missing commitments before you agree to reserve the property.
Check the exact legal entity and signing authority
Obtain the company's full legal name, legal form, business address and relevant registration details. Compare them with current register information. A trading name or a familiar corporate logo does not identify the entity that will owe your rent. Nor does a subsidiary automatically have access to its parent company's assets. Your assessment should concern the proposed tenant, even where the wider group is well known.
Next establish who can bind that entity. Under section 35 of the GmbHG, a GmbH is represented by its managing directors; joint representation can be necessary where there is more than one. Another signatory needs appropriate authority. A company stamp or an email from human resources is not a substitute for checking this. Resolve the authority question before promising keys to an employee arriving at short notice.
Registration is not proof of solvency. Consider a proportionate financial assessment of the actual tenant and discuss how rent and security will be provided. Under section 13 of the GmbHG, liability for company debts generally rests with the company's assets. The managing director and other group companies do not automatically guarantee payment. Any additional security requires a separate, valid arrangement.
Keep the paperwork proportionate. If the company is the tenant, collecting complete salary and credit files from every possible employee occupant is not the natural starting point. You need clear contractual responsibilities and the information necessary for the agreed occupation. Identify who handles the contract, who processes invoices and who deals with defects. Ask who covers absences so that a leaking appliance does not depend on one employee returning from leave.
Define how the apartment will actually be occupied
Describe a real living arrangement rather than using labels such as “corporate accommodation”. Two employees maintaining a household are different from rotating construction teams or an operator selling overnight stays on booking platforms. The classification of the principal lease under civil law does not automatically approve an office, hostel or accommodation business in a residential unit. The actual use remains a separate question.
Take an illustrative 72-square-metre apartment intended for two employees. Those figures are not a universal legal occupancy allowance. Check the layout, usable rooms, proposed household and applicable public-law requirements. Establish whether family members will also live there, whether rooms will be allocated separately and whether beds would be shared by successive shifts. Each detail changes the suitability of the property and the agreement you need.
Set out who may occupy the apartment and how replacements work. Decide what information the company must provide, when changes must be reported and which changes require fresh consent. Permission for the company's own employees should not be treated as open permission for another operator or unrelated businesses. Include practical arrangements for keys, communal areas, waste and quiet hours. Residents need access to rules they can understand and follow.
For frequent daily or weekly turnover, ask the relevant housing authority and, where necessary, building control to assess the proposed use. Düsseldorf explains its rules on housing protection and short-term accommodation. Contractual consent cannot replace an official permission that is required. For a condominium, examine the declaration dividing the property and the community's applicable rules as well. Elsewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia, check the local position rather than assuming Düsseldorf's requirements apply throughout the state.
Match the contract and duration to German tenancy law
An apartment's physical suitability for living does not alone determine the legal category of its lease. The purpose agreed with the tenant matters. A GmbH cannot have residential needs of its own. A principal lease taken by that company to accommodate staff therefore normally falls within general tenancy law rather than an ordinary residential tenancy. The Federal Court of Justice explains this distinction in XII ZR 125/18, decided on 23 October 2019.
That distinction does not provide unlimited contractual freedom or remove residents' rights. The owner-company contract and the company-occupant relationship need separate assessment. There are also specific statutory situations, including certain arrangements involving public bodies or recognised welfare organisations under section 578(3) BGB. Those provisions cannot simply be applied to any commercial employer. Calling a document a “residential tenancy agreement” does not settle its classification either.
If an employee rents directly for their own home, the applicable residential protections remain relevant. Furniture, employer payment and a preferred nine-month stay do not independently create an exception. An ordinary fixed-term residential tenancy under section 575 BGB requires a statutory landlord-side reason, communicated in writing at the time of contracting. The employee's limited work assignment is not itself such a reason. The separate exception for temporary use under section 549 BGB needs an assessment of the actual circumstances.
Have the chosen arrangement checked for commencement, binding duration, renewal, termination and required form. A preferred departure date is a planning target until supported by an effective agreement. Explain whether an early project cancellation or staff replacement is intended to affect the principal lease. Do not rely on an informal assurance that the apartment can always be handed back immediately.
Understand what subletting can mean at the end
If the company will give others use of the apartment, the permission in your agreement must support that plan. Section 540 BGB provides the general rule concerning use by third parties. Define the permitted scope carefully. A lease that promises staff accommodation while also imposing an unexplained blanket prohibition on third-party occupation creates avoidable uncertainty. The permission should cover the intended arrangement without silently expanding to every possible accommodation business.
A particularly important provision is section 565 BGB. Where the principal tenant is intended to sublet commercially to third parties for residential use, the owner enters the tenancy with the end tenant when the principal lease ends, provided the statutory conditions apply. An agreement departing from the rule to the end tenant's disadvantage is ineffective. Ending your company lease therefore does not necessarily produce a vacant apartment.
Commercial subletting in this context does not require profit from a rent markup. In VIII ZR 241/16 of 17 January 2018, the Federal Court of Justice included employee housing let systematically on a continuing basis in the employer's economic interest. Retaining staff and gaining an advantage over other employers could satisfy that interest even without profit from the subletting itself.
Ask whether employees receive subtenancies, what duration is promised and what they pay. Accommodation supplied under an employment arrangement is not automatically identical to a separate residential sublease. Conversely, a description such as “free accommodation” does not prove that the occupants have no relevant rights. A German tenancy lawyer should examine the actual contractual chain before you commit, particularly if a future sale with vacant possession or your own occupation depends on the return date.
Separate rent, services, costs and security
Compare the expected return after the work and expenditure the arrangement creates. Frequent replacements may mean more coordination, furnishing wear and handovers. A long company commitment can be useful, but the company name does not guarantee punctual payment or continued demand. Assess the offer against an ordinary direct letting that is suitable for the same property, using consistent assumptions about your own workload.
For illustration, EUR 1,100 for the apartment, EUR 200 as an agreed furniture charge and EUR 250 as an operating-cost advance produce a monthly payment of EUR 1,550. These are hypothetical figures, not Düsseldorf market evidence or confirmation that a particular rent is lawful. The cost advance is not secure additional profit. Identify what is recoverable and what must later be accounted for. Our guide to calculating the rent helps organise that comparison.
A fixed cost allowance and an advance followed by accounts are different arrangements. Before offering an inclusive price, specify electricity, internet, cleaning and every other service you intend to supply. Where the German Heating Costs Ordinance applies, its consumption-based accounting requirements cannot simply be replaced with a flat charge; see section 6 HeizkostenV, alongside its precedence rule and applicable exceptions. An attractive monthly figure needs a workable cost allocation behind it.
For ordinary residential tenancies, section 551 BGB generally caps security at three months' rent excluding separately stated operating costs. A cash deposit can be paid in three equal monthly instalments and must be invested separately from the landlord's assets. Do not assume those rules apply unchanged to a differently classified company principal lease. Have the proposed security checked for that arrangement, and consult a tax adviser before making promises about tax treatment or VAT.
Record condition and allocate practical responsibilities
A handover record should cover rooms, existing defects, meter readings, equipment and every key. For furnished accommodation, add an inventory and useful photographs. Describe the age and condition of important items honestly. A visibly used sofa should not become “as new” in the final inspection record. Our guide to letting a furnished apartment explains the wider preparation of furniture and equipment.
The company remains responsible for its own obligations as your tenant. Under section 540(2) BGB it is also responsible for fault attributable to a third party in using the property, including where that use was permitted. This is not unlimited responsibility for all deterioration. Section 538 BGB distinguishes wear caused by proper contractual use from damage for which compensation may be due. The owner's maintenance obligations do not simply disappear because the tenant is a business.
A refrigerator failing through age is different from a door damaged through misuse. Record the condition, apparent cause, notification and repair requirement instead of immediately allocating every cost to the company. Agree who reports defects, who commissions contractors and who approves expenditure. If insurance is offered as reassurance, examine the relevant cover; the existence of a policy alone does not establish that your particular loss will be paid.
Internal handovers between employees can help preserve records, but they do not replace the final handback between you and the company. Arrange a reasonable process for justified inspections and repairs. Keeping an owner's key is not a general entitlement to enter without warning. The people who actually live there still need privacy, even where the company manages the accommodation and pays the rent.
Make the exit plan part of your selection decision
Picture the final month before agreeing the first. Who coordinates the residents' departure, removes belongings and returns all keys? How will you record meters, furniture and unsettled costs? Completion of a work project, termination of an employee's job and termination of your lease are separate events. Appointing a practical contact helps, but that person also needs a clear brief and sufficient authority to organise handback.
Where occupancy rights are disputed or section 565 BGB applies, a promise of vacant handback does not replace legal assessment. Even a right to recover possession does not authorise changing locks or removing residents yourself. A future move into the apartment or a sale with vacant possession must be planned around the real contractual position, not merely the company's internal project timetable.
Before accepting, bring together the verified tenant, permitted use, manageable occupancy arrangements, realistic financial return and a credible exit plan. A company that explains these points transparently is easier to assess than an enquiry offering a high price while remaining vague about who will live there. Our guide to finding tenants provides further help with a structured selection process.
To discuss how your apartment in Düsseldorf or elsewhere in NRW could be positioned for the proposed letting, use the landlord enquiry form for RICHTER Immobilien-Transaktionen. Include the location, size, furnishings, intended duration and company arrangement. This gives the enquiry a concrete starting point. A German lawyer handles binding contract advice, the competent authority decides permission questions, and a tax adviser assesses tax-specific consequences.
